[MarioPro]

Disinformation on Sgrena's Story of Shooting AP Linked to Disinfo on Sgrena's Story of Shooting Right-Wing Bloggers' Fake Sgrena Car Photo - With Help from AP by Fintan Dunne, Editor linkBreakForNews.com March 6th, 2005:
Right-wing bloggers are circulating a photo purportedly showing the car in which Guiliana Sgrena was wounded and her rescuer Nicola Calipari was fatally shot. The photo is being used to discredit Sgrena's account of the shooting. It shows a four-door sedan which has only the driver's side window broken and no overt bullet damage to the bodywork. That contradicts the "hail of bullets" described by Sgrena and others. And it boosts the US military's case that the incident was just a "mishap."

link
At first glance the picture seems legitimate. Captions which accompany the photo on blogs say it's a still frame taken from an Associated Press video about the shooting at Baghdad Airport. These captions also give a source link to versions of the video on Yahoo and on [AP Feedroom

Mario's note: AP removed that video from their Feedrom, so now one can't see it anymore at the AP URL provided above.. They make comments like: "Unless this car is made out of thick metal and bullets bounce off of it, I don't think this car was shot at more than 10 times."

"I ask you, does the car above look like it was riddled with bullets? Either our soldiers are terrible shots or some people are being pretty loose with the facts in this story."

But if you are suspicious that the car seems far too little damaged, you might check major search engines for such a high-profile photo. On the Yahoo News Photo site - I quickly found the same vehicle photographed from another angle. This time with an Iraqi man standing beside the vehicle.


The Yahoo photo caption says:An Iraqi driver stands near his damaged vehicle at the site of the kidnapping of an Italian journalist outside al-Nahrain University in central Baghdad,
Feb 4, 2005.... Gunmen pulled up alongside her vehicle, forced her driver and an Iraqi journalist with her out of the vehicle at gunpoint and then drove off with Sgrena, the sources said.The driver said that the gunmen hit his car as they were rushing away from the scene following the kidnapping. (Akram Saleh/Reuters)

You can read the whole story at BreakForNews.com
as well as comments from Democratic Underground Thread

In the meantime the Italian press said Giuliana Sgrena's real car is being shipped to Rome, so we will be seeing it soon. See also:
[URL=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=617569] Italy's relations with US soured by attack on hostage CONFLICTING VERSIONS (Source: The Independent, UK, 7 Mar 2005)
[/URL]. There are some glaring discrepancies in the Italian and American versions of the killing of the agent Nicola Calipari and the wounding of released hostage Giuliana Sgrena and two other Italian secret service agents:

The Americans say: the car was travelling at high speed
The Italians say: it was travelling at 40-50kph

US: It approached a checkpoint near the airport at speed when soldiers fired on it to force it to stop as a "last resort"
Italy: It had passed three checkpoints without incident and was 700 metres from the airport when fired upon

US: The soldiers used hand signals and bright lights and fired warning shots before hitting the car with shots
Italy: There was no warning. Three to four hundred rounds were fired, afterwards the car seats were covered in spent cartridges. The Americans forced the Italians to remain in the car without medical attention for an hour

US: There was a lack of co-ordination between the Italians and the Americans
Italy: The Americans were kept fully informed

US: It was a regrettable accident which will be aggressively investigated
Italy: Ms Sgrena claims it was a deliberate ambush to kill her, as the Italians had paid a ransom, a practice America opposes, and as she had learnt inconvenient facts from her abductors.

Mario Profaca The Global Intelligence News Portal

[Barbara]

Thanks for the post, Mario! Very informative!

Barbara from Italy

[maverickdoc]

I hope you post more often MarioPro, be careful of trolls though. Seriously don’t bother arguing with them, it's just a waste of time

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarioPro', 'T')hree to four hundred rounds
were fired, afterwards the car seats were covered in spent
cartridges. The Americans forced the Italians to remain in
the car without medical attention for an hour

[MarioPro]

The art of warfare
[URL=http://mprofaca.cro.net/fratricide.html]
So called "friendly fire"[/URL]
What is "friendly fire" or fratricide all about?
Fratricide is the act of killing our own. When a soldier
drops a bomb or opens fire on his own fellow soldiers
- it's so called "friendly fire", so don't worry - be happy;
"Friendly fire" kills friendly.

Qur'an and war
"Your Lord will assist you with
five thousand of the havoc-making angels"
003.124
YUSUFALI: Remember thou saidst to the Faithful:
"Is it not enough for you that Allah should help you
with three thousand angels (Specially) sent down?
PICKTHAL: When thou didst say unto the believers:
Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord should support you
with three thousand angels sent down (to your help)?
SHAKIR: When you said to the believers:
Does it not suffice you that your Lord should assist you
with three thousand of the angels sent down?
003.125
YUSUFALI: "Yea, - if ye remain firm, and act aright,
even if the enemy should rush here on you in hot haste,
your Lord would help you with five thousand angels Making
a terrific onslaught.
PICKTHAL: Nay, but if ye persevere, and keep from evil,
and (the enemy) attack you suddenly, your Lord will help you
with five thousand angels sweeping on.
SHAKIR: Yea! if you remain patient and are on your guard,
and they come upon you in a headlong manner, your Lord
will assist you with five thousand of the havoc-making angels.

Islam’s Stance on Killing Captives
Title of Fatwa: Islam’s Stance on Killing Captives
Date of Fatwa: 17/ May/ 2004
Date of Reply: 17/ May/ 2004
Topic Of Fatwa: Jihad

[URL=http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/english/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=114486] Abu Bakar Bashir:
"God's warriors should not fight
by taking innocent women hostages" [/URL]
Militant cleric appeals for release of Indonesian hostages in Iraq?
Source: Associated Press, Jakarta, Indonesia (2004/10/2)
An Indonesian cleric accused of heading an al-Qaida-linked
terror group does not want to be freed in exchange for
the release of two Indonesian women being held in Iraq,
as their captors have reportedly demanded,
his lawyer said Saturday.
Abu Bakar Bashir urged the group holding the Indonesians
to release them immediately, saying, "God's warriors should
not fight by taking innocent women hostages," attorney
Mohammed Assegaf quoted him as saying.

"It is fun to shoot some people"
said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. General James Mattis
(Some Audience Members Clap)
This NBC video clip was censored,
removed from NBC 7/39 Feed Room,[URL=http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/4153541/detail.html]
but you can read the NBC article [/URL] or click the photo
(below) to see slide show:

About 200 people gathered for the discussion,
held at the San Diego Convention Center.
While many military members laughed
at Lt. Gen. Mattis' comments,
a military expert interviewed by NBC 7/39
called the comments "flippant."

"It's a good feeling ..."
This CNN video clip
http://monotony.eyebeeem.com/marines%20kill%20iraqi.wmv
was censored, removed from the server.
"It's a good feeling" says U.S. Marine soldier
after killing a wounded iraqi soldier
while he was laying on the ground.
(CNN, August 2004)

[URL=http://content.collegehumor.com/media/movies/videophone.wmv] Anyway, watch this to see
why you shouldn't trust video clips[/URL]

Mario Profaca
The Global Intelligence News Portal

[Barbara]

>>>>Why would the seats be covered in spent cartridges?
>>>>The brass is ejected from the side of the weapon, not into the target!

Jack,
what you missed is that our officials shooted back. There were 3 italian officials in the car (one of them is kept hidden, I mean our govt said he was there then he was quickly forgotten). They were armed of course.
Giuliana can't tell everything, she was briefed by the intelligence after her landing in Italy.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Barbara', '&')gt;>>>Why would the seats be covered in spent cartridges?
>>>>The brass is ejected from the side of the weapon, not into the target!

Jack,
what you missed is that our officials shooted back. There were 3 italian officials in the car (one of them is kept hidden, I mean our govt said he was there then he was quickly forgotten). They were armed of course.
Giuliana can't tell everything, she was briefed by the intelligence after her landing in Italy.

[Barbara]

The "shoot back" is a theory which is spreading throught the Internet.
Anyway, the car is on its way to Italy, so we'll see. We know it is an Iraqi-like car (not a fancy SUV, I mean) because they didn't want to attract attention when still in Baghdad.

[MarioPro]

[URL=http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/video/vg.asx]Chi è Giuliana
Giuliana Sgrena: La verita (Il Manifesto)[/URL]

[URL=http://www.rsf.org/sgrena-en.php3]
Timeline: Kidnapping of Giuliana Sgrena[/URL]
Giuliana Sgrena, 56, a senior reporter for the Italian daily paper Il Manifesto,
was kidnapped by gunmen in the centre of Baghdad on 4 February.
She had just interviewed inhabitants of Fallujah who had taken refuge
in a mosque on the Baghdad University campus.

[URL=http://www.rsf.org/special_irak.php3] 48 journalists and media assistants killed
since the start of fighting in Iraq in March 2003,
four still missing[/URL] (Source: Reporters Without Borders)

Watch some CBS News, KTVT and BBC video clips
related to the shooting at the car
carrying the Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari
and ex-hostage Giuliana Sgrena to freedom:
1 2 3 4

What really happened?

And, by the way - see also:
My Report about YOU

Mario

[TrueKaiser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarioPro', '
')And, by the way - see also:
My Report about YOU

Mario

[MarioPro]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', '
')nice site, but all you can do on my system is mess up the browser

[SoothSayer]

"Raise The Hammer" have an interesting article - Link

He discusses the current Peak Oil "denial" process, and also covers some economic aspects.

He says:

Whether or not PO cuts oil prices by very much is another question. What will be the decline profile away from Peak Oil, in percent per year? Nobody knows, but informed guesses can be made. If the guess rate is around 3.5 percent per year, or even a little less than that, then it is likely oil prices will not shrink very much, and certainly not "collapse".

[aldente]

certainly prices will not collapse.

[killJOY]

Andrew McKillop is just using peak oil in an anti-Darwin temper tantrum.

There are far more reliable and intelligent people to listen to now that McKillop has made an ass of himself.

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic19397.html+mckillop

[julianj]

I agree entirely KillJoy! I was hotfooting (hotpixelling?) it over here to say the same thing but you beat me to it. I have really lost respect for McKillop over this anti-darwin drivel. V Peculiar.

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') have really lost respect for McKillop over this anti-darwin drivel. V Peculiar.

[joewp]

I was just coming back from buying more beer and listening to WCBS 880 AM in New York. It struck 9:00PM and the CBS national news came on. After the usual fluff about the soap opera we call "election season" here in the states, the announcer did the Wall Street coverage, reported the DJIA closing number and then said (paraphrasing) "Crude oil continued its downward trend today, losing 76 cents to close at 57.70 a barrel." If you can do a double take at the radio, I sure did one, knowing full well that crude closed up 37 cents at 58.73/bbl.

This is a national radio news reporting FALSE data to "Joe Sixpack" to assure him that oil prices are coming down all over the place, keep driving and make sure you thank President Bush with a vote for the Republican Senator and Congressman running in your state! In about 15 minutes I'm going to listen to the streaming audio at http://newsradio88.com/ and see if it's the same tape and/or he says it again.

I see Shell announce a "new" discovery that's two years old.
I see large speculators selling, selling and going short right before heating season.
I see very bullish inventory data cause a one-day $2 spike last week that's been more than wiped out this week.
I see an outage at the LOOP reported a week after the fact to ease the market after that bullish inventory report.
I hear CBS News seriously misstate the price of oil on a news broadcast.
I see OPEC production cuts shrugged off by traders.
It doesn't look like Iran could move the oil market even if they detonated a nuke.
Bad(bullish) news has driven this market down instead of up.

It's just very strange that all these unusual things are happening all at the same time, right before a very key election, the mid-terms in a second term of a Presidency that usually go against the President's party. Maybe I'm imagining all this, but it sure does seem fishy.

Be honest, is it me? Am I crazy or does this all seem suspicious?

[joewp]

He said something similar at 10:03PM, "The price of crude oil continued to decline below $58 a barrel today".

Is this not a concerted effort to placate the sheeple's fear of high energy prices right before an election in which a Presiden'ts popularity rises and falls inversely proporionally with gasoline prices?

If its not a concerted effort, it sure looks, smells and tastes like one.

[PolestaR]

I saw an Australian news broadcast which changed the oil price 3 times in the same segment (massive amounts and it's not a live price)... visually. Of course the reporter said it was going down.. but it had in fact gone up that day too... 2 of the 3 prices they showed were increases too.

It could just be people getting it wrong or using old data... we just pay more attention to the oil now and think it's a conspiracy because we see so many.

[Lighthouse]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PolestaR', 'I') saw an Australian news broadcast which changed the oil price 3 times in the same segment ...